influence of writing instrument on handwriting

• INTRODUCTION• DEFINITION• DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING INSTRUMENTS• FREQUENT PROBLEMS• QUILL PENS• FOUNTAIN PEN• BALL POINT PEN• POROUS TIP PEN• ROLLER BALL PEN• GEL PEN• PENCIL• CRAYONS• REFRENCES

The identification or elimination of a writing or signature involves and depends upon consideration of each and every element including writing instrument used because it may have some influence on the identifying characteristics. A change in writing instrument at time may transform the writing pictorially because pictorial effect is function of shading, size, fluency and letter design and may cause hindrance in the effective process of comparison. Sometimes some defects of forgery are erroneously attributed to the use of defective writing instrument.

DEFINITION: An instrument/ implement that is used to write. Examples: PEN PENCIL CRAYONS

First writing instrument used by the man was SHARPENDED STONE for making drawings

Greeks used WRITING STYLUS made up of STEEL or BONE to place marks on wax coated tablets

Development of INDIAN INK(by CHIENSE PHILOSPHER, Tien-lcheu (2697 B.C.)

Development of paper ( PARCHMENT PAPER or PAPYRUS)

ROMANS created REED PENS for parchment paper

Stable form of ink was developed in 400 A.D. ( a composite of iron-salts,

nutgalls and gum)

Wood-fiber paper was invented in China in 105 A.D.

QUILL PENS (700 A.D.)

Shortly after the discovery of GRAPHITE as a form of CARBON (in 1564), the FIRST PENCIL was made

FOUNTAIN PEN (the oldest known fountain pen that has survived today was designed by a Frenchmen named M. Bion in 1702.

BALL POINT PEN (Hungarian journalist named Laszlo Biro invented the first ballpoint pen in 1938.)

The first marker was probably the felt tip marker, created in the 1940's

GEL pen was developed by Sakura Color Products Corp. (Osaka, Japan), in 1984

The first crayons consisted of a mixture of charcoal and oil. In the early 1900s, cousins Edwin Binney and Harold Smith developed a nontoxic wax crayon.

• Whether the document is written with the same writing instrument or different writing instruments.

• All the signatures present on the document are made by the same pen at same time.

• The additions are made by the same pen or by the different pens at different time by different writers.

The writing instrument that dominated for the longest period in history (over one-thousand years) was the quill pen . A quill pen is a writing instrument made from flight feathers of large birds. It is used as a writing instrument after dipping in ink. The shaft of the quill act as ink reservoir. These pens are more flexible than other type of ink pens.

•Absence of indentations and physical abrasions.•Shading of all downward strokes due to its softness and flexibility.•Produce double strokes in case of ink failure.•Shading of lateral flourished strokes.•They are very frail and frequently need repair.

Fountain pens are old style of writing instruments. They have refillable or disposable ink cartridges. It is composed of a ink reservoir, from which ink flows through a small opening to the feed bar. Feed bar is consists of an input capillary. The writing tip of fountain pen consists of two points or nibs, which collectively result in one stroke of writing.

1. NIB MARKS ( DOUBLE TRACKS ) * Presence of inkless furrow between two

parallel inked tracks. 2. FEATHERING OF INK * A slow drying ink flowing from a slow moving

pen on rough surface. 3. SERATED MARGINS * When the nibs of pen get rusted due to action

of ink. 4. . PEN SCRATCHES * Due to wear and tear of writing tip * inadequate supply of ink to the writing tip.

SIGNATURES SHOWING DOUBLE PARALLEL TRACK

DUE TO DEFECTIVE NIB

SIGNATURES SHOWING SCRATCHY SIGNATURES

Ball pens were introduced in 1945 in the American market. The ball point pen simply rolls ink onto the paper by means of a small ball bearing. Ball bearing is placed at the tip of the pen by means of housing which is crimped over the widest portion of the ball.

• INKLESS STARTS

• GOOPING

• SKIPPING

• BURR STRIATIONS

• UNINKED GROOVES ALONGSIDE THE MAIN INKED STROKES

• TRAILING OF INK ALONGSIDE THE MAIN INK STROKE

GOOPING OF INK AT THE INITIAL STROKE

SIGNATURES SHOWING TRAILING OF INK

SIGNATURE SHOWING STRIATIONS

SIGNATURE SHOWING INTENDED LINE

SIGNATURES SHOWING DOUBLE TRACKS IN THE

STROKE

SIGNATURES SHOWING BEADED APPEARANCE

These are introduced into the market in1960. the writing point of the pen is porous and allows a supply of aqueous ink to be spread onto the paper . The tips of the pen ranges from broad to narrow. Porous tip pen also has another type that are known as plastic tip pens. They have hard perforated plastic tip. Pens of this class are factory filled and generally disposable.

• Bifurcating or wedge shaped initial or terminal strokes

• Double tracks

• Secondary hairline formation

• Irregular margins

SIGNATURE SHOWING DOUBLE TRACK

SIGNATURES SHOWING BLUNT STARTS AND TERMINALS

SIGNATURES SHOWING HAIRLINE SECONDARY STROKES

WEDGED OR BIFURCATED INTIAL AND TERMINAL STROKES

This class of writing instrument represents a hybrid of fountain and ballpoint pen. The ink used in this is water based. The pens are sold as either disposable items or refillable with a replaceable ink cartridge that includes the ball. The ball present in the pen emboss the paper they do not have characteristics of skipping and gooping .

1.When used against a soft backing they leaves a pronounced central depression. Flow back seems to occur at the end of many strokes.

2.The edges of the stroke are not sharply defined but are irregular and serrated.

3.The pen is capable of producing changes in writing pressure more readily than porous tip pens. The typical action of fluid ink on the paper is present.

Gel pens was first developed by sakura color products corporation of Japan in 1984. initially this class of writing instruments used a high viscosity, pigment based opaque ink, which does not tend to bleed into the paper. Modern black gel inks incorporate both dye-base and pigment coloring. A broad range of ink colors are available. The character which differentiate its ink line from other writing instrument is a tracking effect along the outer edges of the ink stroke.

It was first discovered in England in 1564. Pencil lead is made using graphite for blackness, china clay for hardness or polymer resins that give it strength and smoothness. The amount of clay , graphite and the period baking factors that determines the hardness of lead. It is much easier to produce a forgery with pencil than that with pen and ink, as pencil writings do not reveal the features such as pen lifts, pen position, retouching, pen stops .

A crayon  is  a  stick  of  colored wax, charcoal, chalk  or  other  materials  used  for  writing, coloring, drawing  and  other  methods  of illustration.  A  crayon  made  of oiled chalk is called an oil pastel; when made of pigment with a  dry  binder,  it  is  simply  a pastel;  both  are popular media for color artwork. 

1. Make heavy greasy and colored markings.2. Variation in shade of color may permit differentiation

between products of several manufacturers.3. Instrument do not develop any peculiarity in

handwriting from which individual identification can be made.

These are the basic features and effects of writing instruments on handwriting. But the brain which controls the hand remains the same, irrespective of the nature of the writing instrument. The fundamental structure of handwriting remains unaltered and it is only the general appearance of the handwriting and the amount of detail, which is present, which is affected by the nature of the writing instrument.

• Harrison W. R.(1958) Suspect Documents & their Harrison W. R.(1958) Suspect Documents & their scientific examination, Sweet and Maxwell Limited, scientific examination, Sweet and Maxwell Limited, U.K.U.K.

• Hilton (Hilton (1993) Scientific Examination of Questioned ) Scientific Examination of Questioned Documents, CRC Press, Inc.,2000 Corporate Blvd., Documents, CRC Press, Inc.,2000 Corporate Blvd., N.W.,Boca Raton, FloridaN.W.,Boca Raton, Florida

• Osborn A.S.(1929) Questioned Documents, Boyd Osborn A.S.(1929) Questioned Documents, Boyd Printing Co., Albany, N.Y., U.S.APrinting Co., Albany, N.Y., U.S.A

• Hilton O. :- Effect of Writing Instrument on Handwriting Details [Journal of Forensic Science 1984;29(1)]

• Hilton O. :- Characteristics of the Ball Point Pen and its influence on Handwriting [Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science 1957;47(5)]

• Hilton O. :- Distinctive Qualities of Today’s Pens [ Journal of the Forensic Science Society 1984;24]

• Atul K. Singhla, Komal Saini, O. P. Jasuja and Santokh Singh :- A comparison of line quality defects attributed to defective writing instruments and forgery [ Hand book of Forensic Science edited by Prof. (Dr.) Vimala Veeraraghavan]

• Komal S. :- A Study of Various Factors Influencing Handwriting [ Ph.D. Thesis submitted to Punjabi University Patiala in 1997]

• http://didyouknow.org/crayons/

• http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpen.htm

• http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa100197.htm

"No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or

more wise when he had" Samuel Johnson.

"No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or

more wise when he had" Samuel Johnson.